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LLI GOLINE/NORMAN WELLS
It took Andrew Bailes just five hours to gather enough signatures for his petition to end liquor restrictions in Norman Wells, and now the community will decide in a plebiscite as early as October whether they want to make their decision official.

Andrew Bailes, manager of business development with North-Wright Airways, organized a petition to end liquor restrictions in Norman Wells. "It's pretty much a working town and people are responsible with their alcohol," he said. - photo courtesy of Andrew Bailes

"We just want to be like the rest of Canada and be able to walk into a liquor store and buy whatever we feel like at anytime we feel like. Same as Yellowknife, same as Inuvik, same as Fort Smith and same as Hay River. So, a privilege you guys take for granted, basically we don't have," said Bailes, manager of business development with North-Wright Airways.

"I don't know why we have to get treated like second-class citizens in Norman Wells, or why they treat the Sahtu region differently than anywhere else in the Northwest Territories. We're just kind of tired of it."

Currently, on any given day residents are allowed to purchase two bottles of wine and a bottle of liquor, two bottles of wine and a case of beer, one case of beer and a bottle of liquor, or a flat of beer and a bottle of wine, according to the NWT Liquor Commission.

Bailes said these rules are an outdated inconvenience and don't reflect the town of Norman Wells today.

"If you have a dinner party on a Sunday, you can only buy two bottles of wine. It would be nice to have four or five to entertain all your guests," he said.

He was required to collect signatures from 25 per cent of the voters list, or about 100 people, and he collected 130.

He gave the list to Ian Fremantle, the senior administrative officer, who confirmed they were valid signatures and then submitted them to council.

In a meeting Aug. 23, they voted 4-2 to write Michael Miltenberger, the minister of finance, asking him to include a plebiscite in the Oct. 3 territorial election.

"According to the Liquor Act, it's strictly up to the community to decide what kind of restrictions or bans they want to put in place," Bailes said, adding it wouldn't affect the restrictions in other Sahtu communities.

"I think there's only five self-supporting tax base communities in the Northwest Territories and we're one of them, we're self-sufficient. It's pretty much a working town and people are responsible with their alcohol and so a restriction that was put in place by the commissioner of the Northwest Territories that no one ever voted in, you know, we kind of feel like it should be removed," Bailes said.

Norman Wells has already voted once, in 2003, on removing the ration system. The plebiscite was narrowly defeated 142 to 131.

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